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Age: 35 (Emanuele), 30 (Romana)
Hometown: Siracusa, Sicily, Italy (Emanuele) and Torres Vedras, Portugal (Romana)
Quote: “Every place has a story to tell, you only need enough openness and intellectual curiosity to uncover these stories and delve into them. There are no uninteresting places, only uninterested travellers.”
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“‘Don’t go there,’ the know-it-all, stay-at-home finger-wagger says of many a distant place. I have heard it my whole traveling life, and in almost every case it was bad advice. In my experience these maligned countries are often the most fulfilling. I am not saying they are fun. For undiluted jollification you bake in the sun at Waikiki with a mai tai in your fist, or eat lotuses on the Cote d’Azur. As for the recognition of hard travel as rewarding, the feeling is mainly retrospective, since it is only in looking back that we see how we have been enriched.”
–Paul Theroux, “Why We Travel“, New York Times, April 1, 2011
A remote control. Photo: espensorvik / Flickr
Most career break literature out there is focused on the employee who requests a leave of absence from his boss. Rarely is it about the boss who takes a sabbatical from his own business. Inc. magazine had this story: Inside the mind of a runaway CEO.
While most office satire is about the workers being stuck in their jobs, this article illuminates that entrepreneurs can feel trapped by their companies as well. They may have started their business to escape the grind of working for someone else, only to realize they just created their own grind instead.
The social dynamics of a boss taking a sabbatical were interesting too. Entrepreneurs often fancy themselves as being leaders who are essential to the company’s survival. It can jarring to discover your employees are much happier when you’re away. Of course, it can be more humbling if the business actually does better when you’re not there.
One thing the article focused on is the complications of the CEO’s relationship with his No. 2 manager while he was gone. Initially, the deputy manager felt abandoned and afraid of not knowing what to do. As time passed, he became more comfortable with having that authority. By the time the CEO returned, it had come full circle: now he was afraid the boss would take away his newfound sense of leadership.
The employees are also greatly affected. Initially, they enjoyed the freedom of the boss being out of the office. However, what does it do for their morale, to read a steady flow of Facebook and Twitter updates of all the fun the CEO is having while the staff are still busy with work?
Have you had a business you left behind to travel? Or the opposite, you had a boss who did that? Please share your experiences in the comments.
“One can only really travel if one lets oneself go and takes what every place brings without trying to turn it into a healthy private pattern of one’s own, and I suppose that is the difference between travel and tourism.”
–Freya Stark, Riding to the Tigris
Age: 24 and 25
Hometown: Portland, Maine; Burlington, Vermont
Quote: “We’ve learned to adjust our definition of wealth to mean time and not money, and this was instrumental in the final decision to quit our jobs and take to the road.”
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“It was always like that, I knew, when you set out on a long journey; the classic two-week vacation was never enough time to slough off the dead skin of regular life. In some ways, I’d discovered during years of traveling, home life was like an insulating callus you had to wear off before you could even properly see and absorb the new world around you. I knew that would happen eventually, but meanwhile I had the idea I just wanted to make tracks, to knock back the miles, to go without stopping straight into the heart of the world.”
–Carl Hoffman, The Lunatic Express
Looking for an opportunity to express your sage vagabonding advice?
Are you on or about to leave for a long-term journey, excited to share tricks and tips learned on the road?
Vagablogging is getting a fresh new look, and we’re looking for some fresh new bloggers to join the team. These new writers will post once or twice a week on vagabonding-related topics of their choice, from travel tips to destination suggestions to reviews of travel media. The ideal writer should be familiar with Vagabonding and the philosophy behind it. To get an idea what we’re looking for in terms of content and style, take a look at our recent posts and archives. The best posts are informative in nature and conversational in tone. The deadline for submitting is December 31st. We’ll announce our new contributors along with the new look on January 15th.
Though the positions are unpaid, it’s a great opportunity to build a readership, establish contacts, and create professional opportunities in the travel-writing realm. Vagabloggers who’ve landed lucrative gigs after writing for us include Tim Ferriss (who wrote a little bestseller called The 4-Hour Work Week), Justin Glow (who went on to full-time editing positions at Gadling and AOL), and a number of individuals who’ve landed paid freelance work at World Hum, the National Post, Gadling, US Airways Magazine, Travelers’ Tales, the Los Angeles Times, and other travel-writing venues. Kristin Pope even got a call from The Daily Show after her post about “staycations”.
To be considered for a weekly slot at Vagablogging, please email 2-3 previously unpublished sample posts (200-600 words each) to our managing editor, Ted Beatie (ted *at* tedbeatie *dot* com). To ensure Ted gets your submission, please include the word “Vagablogging” in the subject header. Also be sure to include a little bit about yourself, like where you’re from, your best travel experiences, and anything else you think we should know.
The holiday season is upon us. Christmas trees. Thanksgiving dinners. Holiday lights and decorations. Music. Cookies. Going to parties. Shopping. Giving and receiving gifts.
For many people, with the holidays comes travel. Some go visit family and friends around the world. Others take advantage of the much deserved time off and head for warmer weather in anticipation of the cold winter months ahead. For others, it’s time to dream and wish about that next big trip. One way to start doing that is to think about our loved ones who we love to travel with. Whether it’s a spouse, a significant other, a family member, or a friend, chances are you have someone in your life who loves travel as much as you do.
Since the gift giving season is upon us, BootsnAll thought it would be fun to compile a massive list of awesome travel gear that would make great presents for that travel lover in your life. While you could brave the huge, ridiculous crowds on Black Friday, doesn’t it sound much more appealing to do all your holiday shopping from the comforts of your own home?
Grab yourself a cup of coffee, heat up a plate of those leftover goodies from Thanksgiving, and get all your shopping done for that travel lover in your life. Or if you are the travel lover, start subtlely sending some of the following links to your loved ones. Or post them on Facebook or Twitter under the guise of, “Look how cool this is!” Surely someone will get the hint.
No matter what kind of traveler you are, you are sure to find something for your travel-loving friends and family members, and you don’t have to camp out for hours in the cold while braving the crowds to do it. So do yourself a favor this Friday. Sleep in, enjoy yourself, and simply hop on the old computer and do all your shopping from the comforts of your own home.
A speedometer. Photo: Nathan E / Flickr
“You’ll learn more in your first month of travel then in all your years in school.” I’ve heard this sentiment expressed by many vagabonders far and wide. Nothing will get you as interested in history, geography, art, architecture, economics, politics, and religion as being somewhere else. Names on a map become touchstones for memories and faces of friends made.
Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek (and former Vagablogging writer!) put down these thoughts in a blog post: Filling the void: thoughts on learning and karma.
Here’s where Tim makes the case for taking your education out into the world:
Though you can upgrade your brain domestically, traveling and relocating provides unique conditions that make progress much faster. The different surroundings act as a counterpoint and mirror for your own prejudices, making addressing weaknesses that much easier.
Nothing like getting away from home to break out of your routine, and your usual thought patterns. Going abroad is like the first step in re-wiring your brain. New stimuli will force you to think differently, about a lot of things.
Language is one of the top things you can learn while on the road. Nothing can beat full immersion for boosting your fluency. I had never taken a Mandarin Chinese course before I moved to China. After one year in Shanghai I was conversational. Although I only had one class a week, I had the environment to practice in 24/7.
However, learning about a language isn’t just about learning vocabulary, isn’t it? You pick up on insights into culture and customs. For example, Chinese lacks many of the honorifics you’d find in Japanese, when you’re speaking to someone older or more important. As a consequence, Chinese can come off as more direct and blunt vs. the circumlocutions of Japanese.
How has travel helped you learn? Please share your experiences in the comments.
“Traveling with a lover creates a sense of forward momentum where it might not otherwise exist. The relationship adopts the motion of the physical journey, eliminating the risk of boredom and making the travelers complicit. It shows each person in a new, maybe sexier, light. A journey can drive two people apart, as they realize the different ways they handle fender benders and lost luggage. But if it doesn’t, it binds them in a filament of romance and camaraderie.”
–Elisabeth Eaves, Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents
